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World Championship Darts: Rob Cross wants multiple world titles... 'if I was happy with one, I’d go back to being an electrician’

On target? Rob Cross is aiming for multiple word titles: Getty Images
On target? Rob Cross is aiming for multiple word titles: Getty Images

Rob Cross finds catharsis ahead of the defence of his World Championship title by cleaning out the swimming pool at the new family home.

Cross has spent just a week inside the house bought with the trappings of that £400,000 payday a year ago, having been on the road for much of his time since stunning the darts world.

Life has changed in some ways and hasn't in others for the former electrician since, as the 20th seed, he steamrolled his idol Phil Taylor to win the PDC World Championship at his first attempt.

However, he hankers for some domestic "graft". "I'm the same me, just ask the family," he said of wife, Georgia, and children Layton, Imogen and Maddison, who now enjoy a financial security that did not exist in 'Voltage's' previous life as an electrician.

But it has come at a slight cost, with the past year taking some getting used to. Thrown into the sporting spotlight, he struggled and, constantly travelling, his weight ballooned to 18 stone.

He has pegged back some of that lumber in recent months and has found peace in the defence of the title win despite a fluctuating season where he has struggled on the bigger stages.However, any sense the world No2 is happy being a one-hit wonder is misplaced. "I want to win the World Championship again and not just once more but multiple times," he said. "I wouldn't be happy with just the one win. If I was satisfied with that, I might as well give up and go back to the old job."

Cross's rise to the top has been remarkably rapid, beginning in February 2016 when his uncle turned up on his doorstep to drive him to qualifying for the UK Open 170 miles away against his better judgment.

He duly qualified and impressed in losing 9-5 to Michael van Gerwen in the last 32 of the main tournament.

It sparked in him the possibility of a career first on the challenge tour and now in the PDC, capped by that incredible win at Alexandra Palace. Now 28, Cross doesn't regret not taking the plunge sooner.

"I think it was the right time for me," he said. "I still had bills to pay and the finances weren't ready for me to do it before then. If anything went wrong that would have put pressure on me. I wouldn't change things for the world. I like being the late bloomer and I'm a big believer in whatever is meant to be."

There are moments when he misses working as an electrician and doing occasional plastering, an aspect of his life that he hopes to recreate at his new home in time. "I do miss the graft," he said. "And there's no way of repeating that by practising 12 hours a day.

"I've got jobs to do at home, some fencing to sort out, a gym I want to build."

The gym is a response to his post-World Championship weight gain of four stone or, as he put it, "looking down one day surprised at how quickly that had happened". He hopes to slim down with family walks in the surrounding fields and working out in his new gym, although he plans to reduce the weight slowly so as not to affect his balance on the oche too dramatically. Surprisingly, the darts board has not yet been unpacked. Instead, he goes elsewhere to practise from mid-morning to early afternoon and again from 7pm to 10pm each day, with pool cleaning back at home between those sessions. He has twice been back to 'Ally Pally' but knows there will be an edge to him when he is announced as the defending champion in his first-round match tonight against the winner of Jeffrey de Zwaan and Nitin Kumar.

It is unsurprising, therefore, that he describes the first-round match as "the hardest", as it was 12 months ago.

"It's about getting the right balance of nerves and adrenaline," he said. "I feel very relaxed, I feel brilliant and you don't want to be panicking when you're on stage. If my darts goes as well as it has been in practice then I'll be all right."

His form in 2018 may have fluctuated but, as the only man with an unbeaten record in the field at the World Championship, he is brimming with confidence. Will it go as well as last year? "I want it to go better," he said. "This time I'm going for a nine-darter on the way!"